Re: A Song of Ice and Fire [2]

by davidjoneshoward Tue Nov 24, 2015 4:47 am

Just getting back into the first ASOIAF. I'm about 270 pages in from reading for 10 days (a record for me; I read at a turtle pace) Really good so fat but only if you watch the episodes as you go along. Not that it's hard to visualize, but if I not able to get in the mood, or my mind is on something else, then I'm only really half reading it. Maybe I'll do a more elaborate post on my feelings in the near future.

by Eldorion Tue Nov 24, 2015 5:39 am

It's been ages since I've read books 1-4, but I'd imagine that trying to read/watch in a synchronized fashion would get really difficult in season two or three since the show starts to present material in a different order than the book did. IIRC they started doing this sort of reordering/more chronological presentation even before they started making major changes.

by Ringdrotten Tue Dec 15, 2015 3:24 pm

Couldn't find a new book I wanted to read, so last night I began rereading GoT - it feels good to be back Very Happy

by Bluebottle Tue Dec 15, 2015 7:03 pm

That's cool. Very Happy

It can be a lot of fun revisiting stuff like that. I don't have a memory card on my phone, so very limited space, and for a long time the last two books in the series where all I had to listen to on it. So, I was listening to a combined reading of the last two audiobooks just about on repeat for a fair while.

Let me know if you're interested in the alternative reading order if/when you get to the last two books. Really makes them stand out in a new light.

by Ringdrotten Wed Dec 16, 2015 3:14 pm

I'm probably going for the chronological reading of 4 and 5 this time, I'll let you know when I get there Smile

by halfwise Wed Dec 16, 2015 4:40 pm

what is this alternative reading order of which you speak? If chapter by chapter in different books that would be nearly impossible, since they only have repeating names and not numbers.

by Forest Shepherd Wed Dec 16, 2015 6:54 pm

The pages are numbered, and work well as a guide to ones current location in the book. Razz

by Bluebottle Wed Dec 16, 2015 7:43 pm

Yeah, I did it with the audiobooks, which is easier, but even with the physical copies you mostly stay with each book for a couple of chapters at a time except for at the start.

Spoiler:

http://boiledleather.com/post/25902554148/a-new-readerfriendly-combined-reading-order-for-a

Also reading this way the scope of the story simply stuns you. Trust me, you never want to go back. (When it comes to the difference, it's the change from Cersei I to Tyrion I that really floors you. (It just seems so natural.)) Very Happy

by Forest Shepherd Wed Dec 16, 2015 7:51 pm

This almost makes me want to go back and try it myself!

by Bluebottle Wed Dec 16, 2015 7:54 pm

You really should. Nod

by Eldorion Wed Dec 16, 2015 11:56 pm

Yeah, if I ever re-read the whole series (which is a big if) I'm probably going to do it the combined way.

by halfwise Thu Dec 17, 2015 12:00 am

It only applies to the last two books, right? Or would the others benefit as well?

Might be good if someone put together an electronic book version that featured that order.

by Eldorion Thu Dec 17, 2015 12:20 am

It's just for the fourth and fifth books. The idea was that since AFFC and ADWD were originally supposed to be a single book it would benefit from intercutting. AFFC especially suffers from the lack of many fan-favorite characters. Most of the AFFC characters do appear towards the end of ADWD as the chronology catches up but it's still a really awkward solution. The idea isn't to have strict chronology, though, as none of the books were written that way.

I think there are fan-made e-books of the combined order but they're in a grey (or maybe just black) area of copyright law.

by Bluebottle Thu Dec 17, 2015 1:32 pm

Yeah, although I don't think you have to go all the way back to reread the last two books in that order. That would be a big stumbling block for me doing so again anyway, as, while I like the two first books, they are a bit of a drag when you know the twists, and the third book, for all it's greatness, is really really bleak.

I'd think it just as good an idea to jump straight to the last two for anyone interested.

They are the ones that in hindsight really impresses me. I think if George had released them combined and included the conclusive part which he moved to Winds, this might very well have been the book he had been remembered for. It's just so beyond the rest of the series, in scope, in everything.

by halfwise Thu Dec 17, 2015 2:59 pm

Interesting - critics really hammered the last book hard for not really going anywhere, but you think it holds up well when intercut with the fourth book. I'll definitely try it sometime.

by Eldorion Thu Dec 17, 2015 6:33 pm

Bluebottle wrote:They are the ones that in hindsight really impresses me. I think if George had released them combined and included the conclusive part which he moved to Winds, this might very well have been the book he had been remembered for. It's just so beyond the rest of the series, in scope, in everything.

Possibly, not sure I'd go that far, but he'd also be remembered as the guy who took (at least) 13 years to release the next book in his series after ASOS if he'd done that. Razz

Not to mention that the book would have had to be published in multiple volumes for length reasons unless his editor somehow (re)grew a spine in the middle of that process.

by Forest Shepherd Thu Dec 17, 2015 9:13 pm

The whole series after the first 2/3rds of book 1 kind of sucks.

by Eldorion Thu Dec 17, 2015 9:18 pm

I gotta disagree there. ASOS is one of my favorite fantasy novels.

by Forest Shepherd Thu Dec 17, 2015 9:52 pm

Yeah I know. Wink

by Eldorion Fri Dec 18, 2015 3:01 am

Not tryna tell you you're wrong though. Thumbs Up

by halfwise Fri Dec 18, 2015 3:32 am

Naw, it's somewhat unique. GRRM is tapping a mix of fantasy and realism that was missing. Actually others have tried it, but the story telling just wasn't there.

by Forest Shepherd Fri Dec 18, 2015 6:10 am

I do not currently have the pleasure of understanding you good sir! Please reiterate your points in a manner more conducive to my muddled understanding. Question

by Bluebottle Fri Dec 18, 2015 7:27 am

halfwise wrote:Naw, it's somewhat unique. GRRM is tapping a mix of fantasy and realism that was missing. Actually others have tried it, but the story telling just wasn't there.

Yes, exactly. And particularly his subversion of the fantasy genre away from the black and white, good and evil, dichotomy.

Again he might not have been the first, or the only one. But he was the one who did it successfully.

by Bluebottle Fri Dec 18, 2015 7:29 am

Eldorion wrote:Possibly, not sure I'd go that far, but he'd also be remembered as the guy who took (at least) 13 years to release the next book in his series after ASOS if he'd done that. Not to mention that the book would have had to be published in multiple volumes for length reasons unless his editor somehow (re)grew a spine in the middle of that process.

Yeah, although I think he had the material I'm talking about done in 10. But at least people would see the reason it took so long, and the achievement it was. Diving that part of the story in aFfCs and aDwDs, plus the several chapters that were dropped from Dance very late in the process, really gets in the way of that. It would have been a statement, It would have been something out of the ordinary, because it was. The story those two books tell really is something out of the ordinary, in scope and vision, in an engaging all engrossing fictional world and setting. And as such I think it should have been presented as such as well. (So, yes. An editor with more of a spine would have helped.) It could have been the book to define his authorship, and the series.

I'm probably romanticizing it a bit, but I am slightly grieving for the book that might have been.

by Ringdrotten Fri Dec 18, 2015 9:12 am

I am actually enjoying this reread alot more than I thought I would - it's amazing how thorough GRRM has been with this series. He hints at major events several books ahead in the first hundred pages alone.